So to update this mornings Trailer Park Homestead update, in which I mentioned they were going to put a new floor down on the garage, they not only put down a floor in the garage, they put down an awful "crushed asphalt" driveway that covers almost the entire area my garden was. So where this summer it looked like this:
Now it looks like this:
That is not just mud. That is an actual driveway. Obviously, I'm not going to let this stop me from gardening, especially since I suspect (but have no proof of) that is the
purpose of the driveway, since that was not mentioned when I was talking to the contractor this spring. It just means that all my hard work to dig out the garden plots that made the yard so pretty this year (unless you are the trailer park manager, in which apparently the picture from this summer is "unsightly" and the bottom picture is acceptable) is gone. Utterly and completely devastated.
So it looks like in the spring, I'll be needing to build some garden boxes and/or planters to set on this eyesore of a driveway to keep my garden growing. Great. Just what I need--another project that may cost money, especially when my husband, the sole breadwinner of the household, just lost his job on Monday.
Is it any wonder that this new development is leaving
me totally devastated?
this is really heart breaking. i'm so sad for you, you work so hard and try to do a good thing and this is the payoff? Sucks! Keep us all posted on how you overcome this setback.
ReplyDeleteThat is truly horrible. Hopefully you can spend the next few months plotting & planning ways to get repurposed materials (or something else cheap) for your boxes. Probably want to line the bottom of the boxes with plastic, since asphalt leaches yucky things. The soil to fill the boxes is a pretty big investment, too. Is there a way you could start collecting bags of leaves from neighbors or others in your community? Old leaves plus coffee grounds (Starbucks gives them away in bags, even during the winter if you ask) could go a long way toward filling your boxes.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good fight -- I know you will!
good grief!! that royally sucks! i'll never understand why places don't let people garden/grow their own food.
ReplyDeleteI'll be keepin' ya'll in my thoughts. i know how horrid it is to have the sole "bread winner" out of work. we're barely getting back on our feet after 2 years of unemployment.. and loss of everything just about. Hang in there. there's got to be something out there!
Wow!!! I'd be seriously mad! That is just sooo not right. I feel so bad for you ~ I know that if it was me, I'd be ballin' like a baby in the corner, or screaming my head off at someone. Not that those would help any...
ReplyDeleteConsidering the high cost of good dirt, start filling any and everything you can find to hold some and start layering it compost style. Newspaper, leaves, yard clippings, left-over/bad/not edible parts of produce, coffee grinds, throw it all in. And have the kids play in the dirt and dig up some worms to toss in the mix. Come planting time up there, you should be good to go.
Sending you positive thoughts and hope that everything turns out for the best. It may not seem like it at times, but I believe everything happens for a reason. Good luck!
That was the first thing I thought when I seen your update. Id make a large wager they did it on purpose. That looks like total shit what they did to your yard. They should be ashamed.
ReplyDeleteCan you guys scrape up enough to buy a house? There are many foreclosures in town that are under 30k and would work well for what you need, plus you wouldn't have to pay the insane amount of rent you do in the park. We were at over $900/mo there when we moved out, but our mortgage payment is so much less than that (under $750). We can garden all we want and we don't have to deal with park management telling us what we can and cannot do.
ReplyDeleteWe only pay about $550 in rent right now and there is now way we could buy a house at the moment, with nothing down and my husband out of work!
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking of "stealing" the leaves from the empty lots around me and using them to help grow a bigger compost heap inside the garage, since I think the warmer air in there would let things be more composted over the winter.
Here's a secret they don't tell you ... if you have a dump near you, ask them if they have composted dirt or manure. Even in cities they sometimes have it, and it just SITS there. We hardly ever purchase soil anymore - we take buckets (or sometimes the backhoe) and get it for free (with the dump guys smiling happily that they don't have to deal with it).
ReplyDeleteThis is a set-back but you'll manage. You have all of us, and we support you!
As to the job stuff... you have my sympathies, you really do. We have one breadwinner and one semi-breadwinner, and it's tough for us. I can't imagine what it would be like with NO breadwinner. *hugs*
I'm so sorry!! This is just awful!
ReplyDeleteThat is awful!!! Just a dirty shame. Does this pretty much mean you have no yard at all? Where do they reckon your kids will play? Grrr. Hugs to you.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry. Both for your crushed-asphalt covered garden and the loss of income. :(
ReplyDeleteI must be the only one. Probably think I've gone daft. However...sucks in breath... you do not own the land under the home you are now renting. I.E. it isn't yours to do with as you please. True, the shame of not being able to have a garden. But how can I feel bad for somebody who knew the rules going in? You may believe in your passion, but I believe (and I've read the whole blog) you had a very 'tough if they don't like it' attitude to begin with. I have family that bought a modular home, but rented the land under it. No way would my family feel entitled to 'do as they pleased' by thought they would be better off personally (with frugal food) and be somehow convincing themselves they were educating the management. While I love a good garden, I also am not afraid to say - a beautiful lawn is a pleasure. For children, as well as adults. You've somehow turned your disrespect for the rules you knew about into a 'look at this injustice happening to me' cry.
ReplyDeleteI had to stop subscribing. Because the 'crime' of this isn't one.
Grow up. Please.
Okay... First, you rent. That means you are renting: ie paying for use of building AND LAND. Argh. Second, why not post as yourself instead of anonymous? Frankly it's rather childish to write "grow up please" from behind a blanket. Third, there is so much wrong with the above post that I can't even begin to discuss it. Geez.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Allyson. Not to mention I HAVEN'T BROKEN ANY RULES! According to the lease, I'm allowed to do everything I've been doing. They just keep changing the rules verbally, not in a legally binding ANYTHING as they go along. My attitude of I'll do what I want is BASED on the fact that I'm not doing anything wrong and that everything I've done is temporary and will be reverted to a "better than I found it" state when we move, which probably would have been a couple months ago instead of renewing the lease had I known this was going to happen, since not only does this interfere with my garden, but as someone else mentioned, now my kids have virtually no yard to play in either!
ReplyDeleteBummer, bummer..twice over. Hopefully two more doors of opportunity and blessings will open!
ReplyDeleteI can't post anything else right now...just the site of that asphalt is making me cry.
ReplyDeleteWhat is wrong with people when it's considered shameful to look at a food garden?